Newsletter: Opinion: President Trump? Why ‘The Donald’ won’t just go away

Good morning. I'm Paul Thornton, The Times' letters editor, and it is Saturday, Sept. 12. It might not feel like it, but fall is less than two weeks away. And speaking of fall....

Summer flings don't typically carry over into the fall, but Republican voters' affection for Donald Trump has defied expectations. The Trump sideshow -- complete with the petty insults, bombast and outsized personality one would expect from a reality TV star -- was supposed to have faded by now, we were told, with the money and inertia behind the establishment candidates being too much to overcome.

But Trump is still here, and as columnist Doyle McManus explains, politicians and party operatives are starting to imagine a world where Mr. Trump becomes President Trump. As for what happens next, McManus explains:

What has Trump done right? He began by grabbing voters' attention with a naked appeal to anti-immigrant anger. But he's broadened his pitch with broadsides against a "corrupt" political system, Wall Street financiers and corporations that send U.S. jobs overseas.

There are even signs that he might ease up on the insults — glimpses of a new, more statesmanlike Donald. "I have great respect for a lot of the other people on the stage," he said Friday.

My GOP wise men outlined two possible scenarios: one for a Trump victory, the other for defeat.

Trump could win, they suggested, if he rolls out more policy proposals to demonstrate that he has actually thought about what he'd do as president (he's already promised one on tax reform), and if he survives increased scrutiny from the media as well as attacks from other candidates (Bush has already started in).

Trump will lose, they said, if he can't handle criticism of his record or his paper-thin positions on many issues. Last week, he bobbled a question from conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, admitting testily that he didn't know the names of the leaders of Al Qaeda or Islamic State.

Less likely, he could simply run out of new things to say. "You have to presume he can't dominate the media for five more months this way," [former Republican Rep. Vin] Weber said. "What happens to him when the attention starts to dry up?"

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Whatever it is about Trump that appeals to GOP voters, it doesn't work for Times readers. Among the paper's letter writers, Trump is by far the most criticized of the candidates. Calling him "polarizing" would be inaccurate, as it would imply there are two extremes of reaction; in reality, there's almost nothing to balance out the negative. In letters published on Tuesday, two readers expressed dismay that Trump would target his rival Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish fluently; on Wednesday, one reader said Trump is the kind of candidate Americans deserve in this poisoned political environment; and on Friday, readers admonished Trump for insulting his fellow candidates.

Federal law makes it really easy for college kids to lie to their parents. That's because, writes Michele Willens, the unwieldy Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act grants all students -- even ones under 18 -- the full privacy protections given to adults, meaning parents have no right to access their kids' records. In a country where 45% of students who enter college each year will not graduate, FERPA is counterproductive and should be thrown out, Willens says. L.A. Times

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders put together a Labor Day index for The Times, and his numbers reflecting the state of American workers are sobering. One of Sanders' stats puts the rich-poor divide into particularly stark relief: "Percentage of the entire wealth of the United States owned by the top 1%: 41. Percentage owned by the bottom 60%: 2." L.A. Times

Don't call the majority of Syrians pouring into Europe "refugees," writes columnist Jonah Goldberg. He says they're migrants, the key difference being that these people, instead of fleeing war-torn Syria, chose to leave places in which they had already found refuge for countries like Germany that have a higher standard of living. L.A. Times

Oregon ♥ California. That might be overstating it a bit, but the paper of record in the Golden State's neighbor to the north hearteningly rises to the defense of ex-Californians who put down roots in the Beaver State. The Oregonian's editorial board welcomes the influx from the south: "Californians and others who move here continue to serve as both stimulus to the economy and a force of economic stability -- the opposite of disruption." The Oregonian

Fruit that only a foodie could love: One of the reasons Americans waste so much food is that they want their produce to look good. That's a shame, writes Jordan Figueiredo of the @UglyFruitAndVeg campaign, who has put together a slide show of "misshapen" fruits ahd vegetables that probably taste just as good as more photogenic foodstuffs. He writes, "Fruit and vegetables grow in amazing shapes: peaches that look like birds, plums that look like hearts and, everyone's favorite, carrots that look like they're auditioning for an X-rated movie." L.A. Times

Do you find this newsletter appetizing? Write to paul.thornton@latimes.com with your feedback.

On a personal note, it's likely that starting next week, I will be out on family leave for about a month. My colleague Matthew Fleischer will be writing this newsletter in my absence. Thanks for reading!